In the End, We're All Just Animals
by Drinking Again
Summary: M-rated collection of one-shots, catering to all pairings, orientations, and characters. Will vary in length and genre. Currently accepting prompts and requests. Will dapple in various 'areas of interest' and kinks, and may even include vague strings of plot every now and then.
1. Pride - Cam x Nixie

**So, Welcome to 'In the End, We're All Just Animals'. This will be a collection of Mature one-shots, written for pairings of all matches and orientations for Mako Mermaids, and looking at fetishes, kinks and dynamics of all sorts. Each will be headed by a brief synopsis and any needed warnings. Prompts are currently being drawn on from websites/my own imagination, but please feel free to request anything you like. I'm up for giving most things a go :)**

**I hope you enjoy reading, and any and all feedback is welcomed and adored. **

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** Synopsis: **The first of my planned **Seven Deadly Sins** Mako Mermaids one-shots, starting with the Pride sin. A tale in which Cam is willing to do literally _anything_ to earn the forgiveness of Nixie, and she chooses to gleefully abuse this fact. Of course, what she didn't bargain for was Cam's loyalty to her, or her own feelings for him. Dapples in a light bit of Dom/Sub and lives up to the M rating later on.

**Pairing: **Cam x Nixie

**Warnings: **Fairly safe, unless even light Dom/Sub really isn't your thing. Starts off with plot devices that thankfully devolve into lemons later on. Will be re-edited when I have a chance later on. Also, I haven't written anything M rated in a hella long while, so I'm a bit out of practice- please excuse the rustiness. Also includes far too many inside-jokes and references to my other ff one-shots.

**Recommended Listening:** High For This - The Weekend

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**Pride**

In Cam's defence, his behaviour since his betrayal had been textbook perfect. He'd helped out Nixie and the gang at every possible turn, had always been there if one of them had needed him, and at one point he'd even endangered his own life to save theirs. The thing was, Nixie didn't want textbook perfect. She wanted Cam back, and she wanted him to pay for it.

Zac had been the first to forgive him. The merman had never said exactly what had been the turning point. One day, however, Nixie and the others had gone over to his apartment to find him sat with Cam cross-legged on his bed, playing on his PlayStation and joking around with one another. Whenever asked how he could possibly forgive him, Zac would simply shrug and say with a grin, "Because he's my best friend."

Sirena had been the next to relent. This didn't surprise anyone since she'd never been able to hold a grudge longer than a few weeks. She defended Cam from the others by citing all the good deeds he'd done since, and would even become quite impassioned if Lyla and Nixie argued with her for long enough. It got to the point where Nixie would have been jealous were Sirena not so clearly infatuated with the land-boy David.

Lyla's treachery was the worst. Nixie had expected her to hold out until the bitter end, and yet one day Nixie happened upon the three of them all sat together at the cafe, laughing; Lyla, Zac, and Cam. "If Zac trusts him again, then so do I," was the simple reason she gave whenever questioned on her choice. It seemed idiotic to Nixie but she was resolute, even inviting Cam along with them on trips to Mako.

And so, in the end, Nixie was the only one left. Her friends might have abandoned her, but there was no chance in hell of her giving up. Cam deserved to be punished for what he had done, and how he had used her. She told the others that it was only because she could never trust him again, but her determination went deeper than that. By exploiting and manipulating her like that, Cam had gone far enough to wound Nixie's pride. She normally had a very thick skin, but once someone managed to get under it, any act of dishonesty was something that she was sure to make them pay for. Cam was no exception.

"Nixie, come on," Cam said with his typical Cam crooked grin, "you've got to forgive me some time. Preferably now."

"I told you Cam, you're permanently black-listed," Nixie sniffed stiffly, looking around for Carly, who was supposed to have delivered her lobster by now. It would provide a welcome distraction from the blonde sat opposite her, who was at that present moment watching her with attentive, eager eyes.

"Whatever happened to giving people second chances? Come on, there's got to be some way I can make things up to you," Cam said, leaning further across the table, half out of his chair. To anyone watching, they must have looked entirely bizarre, what with Cam practically sprawled across the table, but then Nixie had never cared about other people. And she most certainly didn't care about Cam.

"No," she said stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest and slumping back in her chair. "There is nothing in this world that you could do to make it up to me."

"Aw, come on, _please_. I'll do anything," Cam begged in a whine, gripping his hands together as if he were praying and looking her in the eyes with his own wide, pleading ones.

Bored of being drilled with the usual pleas, Nixie decided to see how far he was really willing to take this. Considering him for a moment, she reckoned he'd maybe last… an hour, perhaps? She supposed it depended on how far she pushed him.

"Anything, you say?" Nixie questioned airily, raising an eyebrow as she looked him over, running her tongue against the back of her teeth as she entertained the idea at hand. "Do you really mean that?"

"_Anything_," Cam said, and a smile found its way back to his lips. He thought he had won.

How cute.

Smirking to herself internally but maintaining a strictly blank expression, Nixie nodded. "Well then, I suppose there is one thing."

"Whatever you say. Anything, anything at all."

"There is only one thing you could possibly do to win back my trust," Nixie told him calmly, and the corner of her mouth curled up ever so slightly. "You have to do absolutely everything I say. Ever. Essentially speaking, you get to spend the rest of your life as my bitch, no complaining allowed. Does that sound like a good deal to you?"

A moment of stunned silence followed afterwards. Judging by Cam's glazed expression, Nixie had been wrong. She'd hoped that he would at least accept the proposal and then drop out, but going by how dazed he appeared it didn't look like things were even going to get that far. It was a shame, ordering him around for a bit would have been fun, but then it had always been a long shot. Even Cam wouldn't be stubborn enough to accept _that_ sort of an offer.

"Alright, I'll do it," he said, blinking as his expression cleared. There was no joking smile on his face, no deceptive mischief in his eyes. His lips were set in a determined grimace and he was frowning, and Nixie could have sworn he'd said yes.

"I'm sorry?" She asked, not quite able to believe her ears.

"I said I'll do it. If it means that you'll trust me again," Cam repeated firmly, deadly serious.

Staring back at him for a couple of seconds, Nixie took a moment to realise her newfound power before relaxing into a slow, smug smile. "Well then, I'm glad that's settled. Although, naturally you'll have to prove yourself first." She glanced around for inspiration, which then came in the form of her stomach grumbling. "Go be a dear as see where Carly is with my lobster. Oh, and if you would pay for it as well? Thanks."

His face giving no sign of resentment or anger away, Cam simply nodded and rose from his chair, disappearing off to follow his orders. He returned with Carly by his side and a lobster platter rested in her hands. "God, sorry Nixie, today has been completely hectic," Carly apologised in a rush, hurriedly setting Nixie's lobster down upon the table. "Here's the bill. Just bring it over to me or David when you're done."

"Actually, Cam's paying for this," Nixie informed her calmly, her eyes going over to Cam, narrowing with the challenge. He looked back at her without speaking for a moment before he turned to Carly and grinned with the perfect amount of charisma to mask what was going on.

"The fair lady speaks the truth. I've owed Nixie a lobster for a while, but she's only just let me pay her back."

Looking between the two of them, not oblivious to the antipathy in Nixie's expression or the slight strain in Cam's, Carly waited for a better explanation to come but received none. Cam just kept on grinning and Nixie sat there watching him, waiting for him to crack. "Sure, whatever you two want," Carly said slowly, her puzzlement wasted on the two of them. There was no chance they were letting anyone else in on what was going on. That much was established in an unspoken vow of privacy, and served at the beginning foundation for their potential mutual trust.

Carly then left the two of them to it, and Nixie tucked into the lobster. It was, as always, delicious, and was made all the sweeter by the knowledge that Cam had paid for it. She looked up at him, considering all the possibilities, the best ways to push him right up to his boundaries without shoving him over them. She wanted to keep this going for as long as possible; it wasn't every day she acquired a willing slave after all.

"Still sure you want to do this?" She asked him, popping a slice of lobster into her mouth.

"I said I'd do anything, didn't I?" Cam reminded her, and whilst she could now hear the resignation behind that promise, he still seemed perfectly serious.

"Well then," Nixie said with a smile that was nothing short of deviant, "let's put that to the test now, shall we?"

And so ensued a day of Nixie shamelessly bossing Cam about, having him follow her everywhere and generally finding the best ways to exploit and humiliate him. She had him functioning as a human shade-provider down on the beach whilst she read her book, carrying her things for her to and from the shops, and so on. He carried, paid, and followed her according to her every word, and not once did he complain, carrying out most of his tasks with wordless diligence. Although Nixie would never admit it aloud, she was whole-heartedly impressed.

Cam well out-stripped her prediction of one hour, and that evening he was still accompanying her. Having had dinner together at the café, they sat together in Aunt Rita's house before the television, some mindless show about Vampires in Australia blinking out from the TV. Rita, Lyla and Sirena had all gone out for a family-bonding meal, one which Nixie had wormed her way out of by feigning sickness. No way was she going to pass up time that could be spent abusing Cam instead.

Nixie had gone as far as to order Cam to feed her grapes by hand, confident that he would call it quits then and there. Instead, however, he had politely informed her that she was insane and had then proceeded to retrieve a bag of grapes from the fridge. He sat beside her, his legs tucked underneath him, dropping the occasional grape into her mouth whenever she signalled for him to do so.

Nixie had to confess that having this much power over him was largely satisfying. Not only that, but she was beginning to feel that the debt of humiliation had nearly been repaid. After all, she had ordered Cam to confess his undying love to David, along with making him give her a piggyback across a mile long strip of beach in front of all his friends. They were ever so nearly even.

"Cam, my feet are tired from all this marching around finding things to keep you entertained," she whined, pouting as she wiggled the appendages in question. "Would you be an angel and let me rest them on you?"

"Sure," Cam said with a shrug, viewing the request as nothing compared to the past challenges of the day, moving his hands from his lap so that she could rest her feet there.

Smirking wickedly, Nixie narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. "No, I don't think you quite understand. I mean that I want you down on the floor before me, here, so that I can prop my feet up on you. You see, this house is rather lacking in footrests, and since you're here, I thought I'd best make use of you."

Looking back at her for a moment to see if she was really serious, Cam gave her a thin-lipped grimace before sighing, the day's activities having taken their toll on him. "That's not a sigh of complaint, is it Cam?" Nixie asked him, pursing her lips.

"No Nixie, it was not. I would be delighted to be your footrest," Cam replied with forced brightness, clambering down off of the sofa onto the floor. Scooting over to sit before her, he turned his back on the TV and took a hold of her feet, lifting them up onto his shoulders, resting them there.

"Good slave," Nixie praised him with a condescending smirk, adjusting her feet so that they were comfortable and then returning to watching the television, helping herself to some grapes.

Having him just sit there though was boring for the both of them, and so after a short while Nixie took her feet down from Cam's shoulders and placed them instead in his lap. "It just isn't helping, Cam. You're going to have to rub them," she informed him with mock disappointment, shaking her head sadly.

Well trained by now, Cam responded quickly and took one of her feet in his hands. Without a word, he gently went about massaging her foot, rubbing his thumbs in slow, deep circles across her ankles, curving along her sole and rubbing soothingly up her instep. Whilst Nixie had requested it solely for the purpose of torturing him further, she found the experience unexpectedly relaxing and settled back into the sofa. Her interest in the programme waned as she watch Cam at work, her eyes following the circular, hypnotic cycles of Cam's fingers. She said nothing, but the silence became filled with something else, warm and tender, best left unspoken.

Amongst it all, Nixie found herself starting to feel guilty for using Cam this way. The land-folk's expression of 'two wrongs don't make a right' drifted back to her, and with an unwelcome sense of shame she bit down upon her bottom lip. "Are you really going to keep this up?" Nixie asked him quietly.

"Until you forgive me, yes," Cam answered in a similarly muted tone, changing over to massage her other foot, his eyes focused on his task.

"You know that you're crazy for doing this though, right?" Nixie pointed out, trying to laugh but finding that the gesture felt inappropriate. The mood was too restful for anything as harsh as laughter, their hushed voices noise enough.

"Am I?" Cam said, his eyes still trained on her foot. "I don't know. I think it's worth it."

Keeping quiet, Nixie could think of no adequate reply that wasn't either embarrassing or idiotic, and so she just lapsed back into silence, watching him work. "Thank you, Cam," she said, focusing her gaze on her own foot so that she didn't have to meet his eyes when she said it, "for not giving up on me. I'm glad that you convinced me to trust you again."

"So I'm forgiven?" He asked, looking up at her as his hands stilled, distracted,

"I suppose so," Nixie said, fidgeting awkwardly under his gaze. "I think it's fair to say that you've earned it."

"Does that mean I'm no longer eternally bound to give you foot-rubs on demand?" He teased, a cheeky smile returning to his face as a mix of relief and hope washed over him.

"Oh, I don't know about that. You promised to be my slave for forever, remember?" Nixie replied with a sultry smile, wiggling her toes against his palm. "I've rather enjoyed being able to order you around."

"Well, if that's what you're into," Cam said. His words sounded dismissive, and yet there was a low, coy undertone in his voice that sent a chilling sensation shivering over Nixie's skin, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. It was not out of fear, however, and she felt a warm, twisting feeling stir in the pit of her stomach.

"Is that one of those expressions that has a double meaning in the human world?" Nixie asked suspiciously, fidgeting again as she tried to dislodge the fluttering feeling that crept up through her.

"Well, to be _into_ something on land generally means to find it, you know," Cam said, lowering his voice as he trailed a finger feather light across the length of her sole, "arousing."

Feeling her voice lodge in her throat at his speech, Nixie very nearly yanked her foot clean out of his grasp, but something else kept her frozen in place, waiting. "And what, on land having someone be your slave is supposed to be," she struggled to get out the last word without her voice cracking, "arousing?"

"Well, yeah," Cam said with a smile that was more nervous than usual. "Or at least, for some people. Land dwellers can be into all kinds of crazy, it just depends who it is."

Her cheeks flaring with heat, Nixie had to take a moment to calm down, feeling that excited twisting feeling playing up in her stomach again. More than that, it grew deeper, sinking down through her legs and accumulating somewhere in the middle. New to her human anatomy, she was inexperienced with what went on down _there_, but it seemed that she was beginning to find out.

"So Cam," she said, trying to sound casual, conversational, "what are you '_into_', as you put it?"

"Bit of a personal question there Nixie," Cam said, his hands starting up again on her foot, pressing more deeply this time, working slowly as his thumb moved in arches across her skin. "Not that I mind telling you, but I wouldn't advise you go around asking just anyone." He paused to consider her question, his hands momentarily stilling before he found his answer. "I guess I'm willing to be open-minded, and I'm up for experimentation. Don't knock it till you try it, right?"

"Right," Nixie repeated absently, her eyes distant as she mulled over his words.

"Cam, I've got another request," she said, speaking suddenly enough into the silence to make Cam jump. She herself couldn't quite believe that she was going to say this, but then today hadn't exactly been conforming to her idea of 'ordinary'.

"Yes?" He prompted her, looking up at her with his pale blue eyes, which in that moment were unfairly piercing.

"I want," she said, stopping mid-sentence to regain her confidence. Swallowing, she summoned her courage and spoke in a clear, confident voice. "I want you to kiss me."

His hands falling motionless upon her feet, Cam stared back at her, completely taken aback by her forwardness. "Are you sure?" He asked, almost sounding concerned. Perhaps he thought she was mad, Nixie certainly did.

"Yes," she said with a healthy dose of patronisation layered into her voice, raising her eyebrows at him. "Would I order you to do so if I wasn't?"

"I suppose not," Cam said quietly, his humour absent as he processed what he was to do. It didn't take him long to recover, however, a dark, seductive smirk forming slowly upon his lips. "And I suppose that since you ordered it, I am helpless but to obey."

Keeping his grip upon her leg firm, Cam pulled himself forwards, closer towards her. He leant down and drew her foot to his lips, planting a small, long-lasting kiss to the middle of her instep. It was the first of many as he continued his way across her calf, each kiss lingering for longer than the last, his lips parting, drawing on the skin beneath them. His touch traced a line of blossoming heat and electricity, leaving Nixie feeling hot and flushed. Each kiss drew further upwards, lining the side of her knee and then daring to continue onwards.

Shifting himself over so that he sat between her legs, still seated down upon the floor, Cam paused to look up at her. His own skin was flushed with red patches as the arousal took its hold on him, and his lips were dry. "Do you want me to stop, mistress?" He asked her, and the teasing way in which he used the term mistress suggested to Nixie that it meant something more, possessed more land-folk connotations. Regardless of what it meant to him, however, Nixie still felt it send an electric thrill up through her, flushing her hot and cold all at the same time.

"No," she said, surprised by how strained and breathless she sounded. With his hands resting on the sides of her thighs, it required everything in her to stop herself from making further noises as she discovered that those areas were far more sensitive than anything she'd ever experienced before. "You can keep going."

Smiling when she gave him permission, Cam pressed a gentle kiss to the modest top of her knee before venturing further, his lips working up the inside of her thigh. He raised himself up onto his knees, leaning forwards so that he could reach everywhere, and his hands overtook his lips as they moved forwards to brush her skirts out of the way, exposing new flesh for kissing.

Nixie's breath caught in her throat as he licked slowly along the inside of her thigh, stopping just sort of her under garments. His lips then stayed where they were, kissing the skin there long and hard before giving it a playful nip. An overwhelming series of shakes and shivers swelled through Nixie, who found herself collapsing back into the sofa, unable to fully control her body anymore.

"Fuck," she whispered. Never before has she used the term, although she'd heard land-folk use it many a time. Only in that moment did she truly understand its purpose, using it to mask a moan that would otherwise have been whole-heartedly embarrassing. Thank god Lyla and the others weren't around to witness her display of trembling vulnerability, the heat flooding through her entirely disarming.

"Nixie," Cam said, breaking from tending to her thigh as he looked up at her from her lap. "May I remove this?" He asked, hooking a lone finger across the edge of her panties, asking permission without pushing it too far.

"Yes, please," Nixie said breathlessly, squirming in frustration. She didn't quite know what she wanted, but what she did know was that her underwear was holding her back.

Noticing how sexually frustrated she was becoming, Cam grinning teasingly and refrained from removing her undergarments, instead turning his attention to the opposite thigh, sucking on it headily to leave a raw, flushed hickey behind in his wake. "Cam," Nixie said through her teeth, moving a hand to knot her fingers in his hair, "take it off, _now_."

Obeying wordlessly, Cam helped draw her underwear down off of her, pulling it free of her legs and tossing it away behind him, getting the impression that it would not be needed again for some time. "Are you alright if I-" Cam started to ask, but Nixie but him off, tightening her grip on his curls.

"Yes, keeping going dammit. I don't know if I can-" She didn't finish, unsure of what it was that she was incapable of. She felt as if she were holding on for something, chasing after some sort of revelation, a grand finish, her body quivering in anticipation for whatever that elusive something was.

"Yes ma'am," Cam said with smirk, his lips returning to kiss her legs, edging closer this time, approaching the newly exposed area.

After having acquired legs, Nixie had done her fair share of exploring down there. She knew what it looked like, and had gone far enough to have touched herself a little, half scared by the sensation it elicited, half fascinated. Rita had sat them all down, told them how their new human bodies would experience certain feelings, about how those feelings may wish to express themselves; the whole of the birds and the bees. Now though, as Cam applied pressure to the base of her clitoris, licking up across it with a quick but firm flick, she learnt that her brief adventures had been nothing. Everything was nothing compared to this.

"Fuck," she whispered again, her right hand knotting further into Cam's curls whilst her left went to her face, balling up into a fist as she tried to cope with all these new sensations. "Fuck." She could feel him slow down, concerned that she needed a break. "Don't you dare fucking stop, Cam," she hissed through her teeth, her heart thudding in her chest as she squirmed again.

She could almost hear him laughing at her desperation as he toyed with her, his tongue dancing around the edge of her clit but never going anywhere truly satisfying. Unable to bare it, needing more, Nixie clamped down on his hair and tilted her head back, panting now. She'd swallow her pride if it meant that she could finally reach whatever that strange, seductive finish was, beckoning her forwards with the promise of ecstasy and release. "Please Cam. I need you to-" She found herself cut off, however, when her throat restricted itself, letting out only a desperate gasp as Cam moved closer, his tongue pressing deeply and lovingly against her.

His hands gripping her thighs tightly, holding her quaking body in place, Cam moved down, his tongue progressing to more internal, personal areas. He slipped his tongue inside her, and at first Nixie was jolted by a small, uncomfortable sensation as he pushed into her. He worked at her gently though, and the arousal quickly loosened her up, allowing him deeper and for more elaborate exploration to take place.

"Cam, I think I'm going to," Nixie gasped, her head tipping backwards against the back of the sofa. Her eyes flickered up to the ceiling as her fingers maintained a firm grip on Cam. "I- _Fuck_."

He pushed further into her, his tongue slipping out and then sliding back in, penetrating new ground as one of his hands moved upwards, a finger gently caressing her clitoris. Heat flooded her and her back arched, her hips bucking up involuntarily against his tongue. His touch felt like fire, and shaking and shivering she felt as if she were crumbling down around him, her consciousness fragmented as she was overcome by the thousands of intricate, fleeting sensations. Each shiver rose and died in a fraction of a second, followed immediately by another, and it was all Nixie could do to endure them, let alone keep up.

Cam's tongue pushed just a millimetre further than before, but with it Nixie felt something entirely new, a flash amongst the mounting crackles. Whatever it was that had been building up within her broke in a flood of quivers and quakes, and she felt the orgasm ripple through her, rolling her muscles with it. It washed over her once, twice, and then surged back again for a third and final time before she found herself collapsing back against the cushions of the sofa, exhausted and unbearably happy.

Against her, Cam withdrew himself and then planted a sweet, chaste kiss to the inside of her thigh before he straightened, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. Climbing up onto the sofa, he sat himself down between her legs, pulling them around him. "Are you alright?" He asked, sounding slightly breathless, although he was nothing compared to the trembling, panting mess that was Nixie.

"Alright," Nixie repeated with a shaky laugh, raising her head up off from the sofa to look at him. "Alright? Cam, I have never felt anything so wonderful in my life." And what she said was true. The wave of orgasms had left her entirely dumbfounded, and there was a deep-set sense of satisfaction seeping through her body. Nothing compared to it, not even swimming in the ocean, not even the sensation of the moon-pool during the night of the full moon. Nothing.

Grinning at her praise, Cam shuffled closer, his hands rubbing up and down her thighs gently. "So I passed as a good slave then?" He said teasingly, the smile upon his lips a little dazed, matching his wind-swept expression. His hair was sticking up at odd angles from where Nixie had tugged at it and his skin was flushed all over, ever so slightly shiny from sweat. Even more to Nixie's liking, he looked just like she felt- slightly mind-blown with a side-serving of dazzled.

"Best slave I've ever had," Nixie confirmed, trying to get her breath back as she stroked a hand across his chest, feeling his body beneath his shirt. And to think that what they had done was only one small fraction of all the possibilities. "Definitely the best. Stellar, in fact. Ten out of ten."

"I'm honoured," Cam murmured, wiping a finger across his lips to dry them before leaning in, kissing her slowly and sensually. A faint tang of what he had just done still lingered there, but Nixie couldn't say she minded, too caught up in the relieving, wonderful moment of the kiss.

"I do forgive you Cam," Nixie said quietly, resting her forehead against his as she raised a hand to his cheek, stroking her fingers down across it. "But you can never betray my trust again. Ever."

"I know I can't," Cam said. "And I don't intend to. Last time was enough to teach me where my priorities ought to lie. No trident or powers are worth losing you."

Nuzzling at him gently, Nixie moved her arms to drape them across his shoulders, pulling their two bodies closer together. "Good," Nixie said quietly, a small smile beginning to form across her lips. "Now, we have just over an hour until my family gets back. I'd like it very much if we could put that time to good use."

"Is that an order or a request?" Cam asked teasingly, grinning back at her.

"Whichever you would prefer it to be."

"Well then- yes ma'am."

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**A/N:** I hope that you enjoyed this one-shot, and if so please do review- feedback serves to keep me writing when I'm feeling largely uninspired :) And if you got this far- thanks for reading!


	2. Tails - Zyla

**Synopsis:** Massive thank you to** fictionlover94 **for her prompt for this chapter:** 'Zac/lyla with a lot of plot and a bit of kink (in merform!). Evie doesn't have to know.'** She also devised the theory behind how mermaids have been breeding during the absence of mermen, and has helped with a great deal of the details. I hope that this chapter is to her satisfaction and that it has done her spectacular theory justice, and I hope that everyone else enjoys this too :)

**Pairing: **Zyla

**Warnings: **Contains a mer-form sex scene. The mechanics for this were based on the intercourse of whales and dolphins, so thanks to mother nature for providing the guidelines.

**Recommended Listening:** A Little Death - The Neighbourhood

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**Tails**

"So, Lyla," Nixie said coyly, swirling her straw around in circles in her milkshake, "how are you feeling this fine morning?"

"Fine," Lyla said slowly, eying the brunette with suspicion. There was something about her crooked smirk that Lyla just could not trust.

"Really?" Sirena said, not wearing Nixie's deviant smile but there was definitely something mischievous about her tone.

They were seated together at their usual table in the Ocean Café, all three girls nursing drinks before classes started. "Yeah, I am absolutely, completely, one-hundred percent fine, thanks," Lyla said, stressing her words in a patronising, over-the-top fashion as she looked between the two of them. "What's going on with you two?"

"Oh, we just care about you that's all," Nixie said innocently, picking her straw up and running her tongue along the froth-coated end. "Sure you're alright, Lyla?" She said, grinning openly now. "Not feeling at all… oh, I don't know, horny?"

"Horny?" Lyla questioned, wondering what on earth horns had to do with it, titling her head to the side like a confused puppy dog. "What's-"

"It means hormonal," Sirena explained quickly, her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment. "Like… you know… _hormonal_."

"You know Lyla, are you in, '_da mood'_?" Nixie echoed, impersonating Sebastian the Jamaican crab from The Little Mermaid surprisingly well.

Feeling herself slowly turning crimson, Lyla could only open and close her mouth like a guppy fish for a moment, unable to formulate tangible words. "Am I- what?" She demanded incredulously, unable to understand why the hell they were asking her _that_.

"Come on Lyla, we're all mature individuals. You ought to be more open-minded about this topic. After all, you're the eldest," Nixie said with a casual shrug.

"Listen, Lyla, Aunt Rita wanted us to talk to you about something," Sirena said more seriously, leaning forwards as she rested her arms on the table. "She thought that we should talk to you about it instead of her, since it's kind of a sensitive topic."

"Which is funny, because she could talk to _us _about it," Nixie said, curling a lock of hair around her fingers theatrically. "Clearly she's scared of you Lyla. Sensibly too."

"Lyla," Sirena said, sternly cutting across Nixie, "tonight there's going to be a blue moon."

"Yeah," Lyla said slowly, "I knew that. So what? Zac's got his control over the moon spell sorted, so it's no longer an issue. What's that got anything to do with me being… hormonal?" She said, forcing the last word out just to prove to Nixie that she could indeed say it.

"Well, it's the first blue moon since you turned seventeen," Sirena said, her cheeks gradually flushing darker. She dropped her eyes to her hands and started fiddling with her nails, cleaning them despite their being spotless. "You know what happens then, once mermaids have turned seventeen and reached maturity."

Frowning in confusion at Sirena, unsure as to what she was getting at, Lyla hesitated before answering. "Yeah, we were all taught those basics in school Sirena. On the night of the blue moon, mature mermaids can lay their eggs in their moon pool to be fertilised." She glanced again between Nixie's devilish grin and Sirena's crimson cheeks and began to wonder if they'd gone mad. "Guys, I'm not intending on swimming out to Mako tonight and laying some newly matured mermaid eggs. Motherhood isn't really my thing."

"Oh but Lyla, you're forgetting the newest variable," Nixie said, clearly delighting in whatever the hell was going on. "Don't tell me you've forgotten about the charming Zac already?"

"Zac?" Lyla repeated in a whispered hiss, glancing around anxiously to see if he was close by. Thankfully he appeared to be absent from the café, but that didn't mean that others were incapable of overhearing. Lyla would never be able to live it down if Zac was informed that Lyla had been overheard discussing him _fertilising her eggs_. Even humans weren't that weird.

"Yeah, Zac, you know, tan, dark-haired, about this high?" Nixie said, raising her hand in the air as a bad indication of his height. "The one you get all flustered and doe-eyed around?"

"I know who Zac is, Nixie," Lyla said through her teeth, glowering over at the brunette. "But what has he got to do with me and maturity? Mermaid eggs aren't fertilised by mermen or we'd all have died out by now."

"Oh Lyla, how wrong you are," Nixie said, leaning closer and lowering her voice, the wicked grin omnipresent upon her face. "You are forgetting your roots. Back when mermen and mermaids co-existed, we used to reproduce a little more traditionally."

"Nixie," Lyla said tightly, cautiously eyeing everyone else in the room to check none of them were listening, "why are you telling me this? Are you forgetting that Zac is currently dating Evie, and that I have no desire to… _reproduce _with him?"

"You're forgetting about the full moon Lyla," Sirena said awkwardly, trying to be gentle with her breaking of the news. "Aunt Rita said that back when mermen were around… reproduction and," she paused to summon the courage to say the word, "sex were much more primal."

"Basically, whilst you might _say_ you don't want Zac and his hot merman booty, under the influence of the full moon you may well be singing a different tune," Nixie said.

Putting her face in her hands, Lyla couldn't believe she was hearing this. "That's impossible," she said, staring at them through the gaps in her fingers. "Tell me you're kidding."

"Sorry Lyla," Sirena apologised. "Rita said that since this is your first blue moon in maturity, resisting its pull is going to be far more difficult than usual. That goes for you and Zac."

"Zac's going to get affected too?" Lyla half-shrieked, her voice cranking up a notch so that she was speaking just a little too loudly. This situation just kept getting worse and worse.

"Rita said that if a merman senses the presence of a mermaid he's attracted to in the moon pool, he'll been drawn there too," Sirena explained quickly, her words hurried as she rushed to get them all out. She was nearly as embarrassed by the subject matter as Lyla was, and it wasn't even her mermaid eggs or love interests that were up for discussion.

"Hey, look on the bright side sunshine," Nixie said, leaning over and nudging Lyla in the ribs. "At least this provides a good chance to see whether or not Zac is into you. Hell, you might even get laid."

"Nixie," Lyla said, speaking calmly, "after this is all over, I'm going to throttle you."

Groaning in total exasperation, trying to bury her head in her hands and just disappear, Lyla didn't know what to say. It sounded like either way, tonight was going to be a total embarrassment. What if Zac ran into her whilst she was in the trance? What if she did something stupid? "Hey Lyla, don't worry," Sirena said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder, giving it a quick reassuring squeeze. "We'll be here for you. We've fought against the moon's pull before, and we've learnt from Zac's experience. I'm sure everything will be fine."

Somehow, Lyla doubted that. The idea of reproduction had never really appealed to her before. There was nothing particularly romantic about it under normal circumstances. Mermaids simply swam into the moon pool, laid their eggs there, and then swam off. After that, only certain breeds of tropical fish were able to enter the pool, and they'd fertilise the eggs, providing the fish part of merfolk. The mermaids and the magic of the moon pool combined created the human half, and then six months after, hey presto! You got a merchild. Easy peasy, but not very appealing if you had absolutely no desire for a child.

What the other two were suggesting about Zac, however, sounded like quite the opposite. Since it had never occurred in the past few centuries, Lyla had no idea how mermaids and mermen… _did it_. The very idea of it sounded awkward and confusing and complicated, and Lyla would never have imagined-

Stopping herself from wandering down that train of thought, feeling a deep heat rising through her, Lyla cleared her throat and straightened, trying to focus. Naturally, it was right at that moment, when her thoughts were anything but sensible, that Zac chose to enter the café. "Oh, look who it is!" Nixie said loudly, earning herself a kick in the leg from Lyla under the table.

Zac thankfully remained oblivious to Nixie and her jesting, going over to the clothes department and slinking an arm around Evie's waist. Lyla didn't mean to watch them but her eyes seemed to be drawn to them like a magnet. She knew that she was pathetic for it, and a bad person, but that didn't mean she could help it. Maybe she was a masochist; maybe she secretly enjoyed the uncomfortable twisting sensation that stabbed through her chest whenever she looked at them together.

She wasn't going to admit it to Nixie or Sirena, even if they clearly already suspected it, but Lyla did harbour certain feelings towards Zac. It just so happened that they were the sorts of feelings that caused complications for her return to the pod. Since she still believed that one day she and her friends would be able to return home, she'd tried her best not to listen to those feelings. Tonight, however, was apparently one of no inhibitions. Primal, Sirena had called it. Lyla didn't quite know how she felt about the idea of that, but a certain unsettling chill ran up her spine whenever she let her mind stray to it.

* * *

By the time evening came and night had settled in, the sky fading to black, framing the white circle of the rising full moon, Lyla knew that there was no chance of resistance. The trance took as strong a hold on her as it had on Zac when he'd first been turned, and despite Nixie and Sirena's best efforts she ended up diving off into the pool, disappearing into the sea. Their only remaining hope was that Zac wouldn't show.

Once she arrived in the moon pool the trance completely vanished and she felt perfectly normal again, fully conscious and in control. Or at least mostly in control, she couldn't quite bring herself to leave.

On the plus side the moon's spell seemed to have its benefits, and Lyla was left feeling unusually tranquil, the water warm and the night air pleasantly cool in contrast. Providing Zac didn't show up, the night might actually go pretty well, no Nixie around to bother her, no Sirena to wake her up early with her morning singing. She could finally spend an evening relaxing in the moon pool like she used to, back in the days of the pod. Back when she, Sirena and Nixie were just the three youngest mermaids lumped together rather than friends. Back in the days when she'd spent most of her time alone, and had thought she preferred it that way.

Just as her thoughts drifted back to that time of isolation, stirring a cold sense of nausea in her stomach, the sound of disturbance rippled through the water. She knew who it was even before she turned, despite her prayers that it was simply Nixie or Sirena coming to comfort her.

"Zac," Lyla said, a little breathlessly, not knowing what else to say. What were you supposed to say to someone who had arrived because of 'primal urges', especially when those primal urges were to get down to business with yours truly?

Clearly the moon trance had played its magic with Zac as well, for to begin with his eyes were clouded, his expression blank. Consciousness slowly slipped back into him, and upon blinking rapidly several times he seemed to realise where he was, looking around and frowning. "Lyla?" Zac said, his brow furrowing further. "What are you doing here? Or more for that matter, why I am I here?"

"Full moon," Lyla said stiltedly, having trouble with her words. Whilst Zac was innocent of the knowledge as to why they were both there, she was not. She was having a bit of a hard time trying to work out how to break the news to him. 'Oh, hey Zac. Yeah, we're here to have wild animal mer-sex. Crazy, huh?'

Somehow she didn't think that would cut it.

"I thought I had that under control by now…" Zac mumbled to himself, looking up through the opening in the ceiling at the cloudless sky. The moon still had yet to rise above them, out of view thanks to the shaft of the volcano. "What about you? How come the others aren't here with you? I thought you guys normally came here to hang out during the full moon."

"We do, it's just…" Lyla stuttered, sounding hopelessly guilty as her cheeks simmered crimson and she sank further into the water, trying to conceal herself. "It's a blue moon."

"Oh. Is that different?" Zac asked, tilting his head to the side.

"No, it's just, I-" Cutting off, Lyla pressed her hands to her face and exhaled slowly, trying to compose herself. "Look, this might be kind of difficult to explain, so you might want to be sitting down for this."

Whilst he was still frowning in confusion at Lyla's cryptic speech, Zac willingly went and settled himself against the shelf of the moon pool, resting his arms on land and leaning his chin against them. Lyla joined him, although she was careful to keep a safe distance between them, fearing what might happen if they got too close. The last thing she needed right now was to lose control.

"So," Zac said once they were both settled, "mind telling me what's bothering you, since I'm guessing that's also the reason why we're both here."

Damn Zac and his perceptiveness, Lyla cursed mentally, burying her head behind her arms so that he couldn't see her flush. Why couldn't someone who was nice and thick have been transformed, someone she could manipulate and hide secrets from with ease? Zac's ability to see straight through her was a real hindrance- very inconsiderate of him.

Inhaling and exhaling three times slowly and deeply, Lyla made a silent prayer for her to somehow survive this, and then related to Zac the very information she had been told about the effects of the blue moon upon newly matured mermaids.

At first, Zac didn't say anything, leaving Lyla hanging as the silence steadily tortured her. "That doesn't mean we have to do anything," Lyla said quickly. "It's just an instinct thing. It's not like we don't have a choice."

"Yeah," Zac said quickly, grasping onto the opportunity with an eagerness that was almost offensive, "good." He noticed her pursed lips and quickly explained himself, "I don't want you to have to do anything you don't want to, same with me. I mean… Evie."

"I agree," Lyla said weakly, trying to smile. Where she'd expected to feel relief, she was experiencing a heavy sinking sensation in the base of her stomach. She wasn't disappointed, that would be ridiculous, and yet she didn't want him to leave.

"You know, we've never been here together during a full moon before. Have you ever spent the night here?" Lyla asked, not sure if she was attempting to change topic or trying to keep him there.

"I haven't actually," Zac realised aloud. "I thought it was supposed to transform me back into a fully-fledged human."

"I don't think the moon would have drawn you here if that was going to happen," Lyla assured him, glancing up at the sky. Peaking out over the edge of the cavern, the tiniest sliver of silver was just visible.

Despite the strangeness of what was supposed to happen, Lyla couldn't help grinning. If there was one thing that helped her relax around Zac, it was her chance to teach him more about his new identity as a merman. When he was learning about the ocean and the magical world dwelling within it, the defensive aggression of his human self vanished and he became open-minded and surprisingly gentle. Lyla had never been all that comfortable around others, and yet Zac she found was someone she could just be around without having to worry.

"Even though we're not giving into our merfolk destinies, you should stay," Lyla said, smiling softly as she looked over at him. "The moon pool under the light of the full moon is genuinely magical."

"I'd like that," Zac said, turning around so that he lay leant back on the land, looking up at the rising moon. "After all, you three always get so excited about it, I want to find out what all the fuss is about."

Watching him as he gazed up at the moon, Lyla couldn't regret his being made a merman. The loss of her family and friends had been subdued with the passing of time, and where she had lost many people with whom she'd never been close, now she had gained so much more. Having people like Sirena and even Nixie around, upon whom she could depend was something she'd never expected to have. Finding someone like Zac was a dream that had never been hers, yet now that she'd met him she couldn't imagine life without him.

"You know, you'd make a great pod mate Zac," Lyla said, averting her eyes from his body, not wanting to humiliate the both of them. "You have a real connection to the ocean, regardless of what Nixie might say when she's in a mood. Not only that, but you care about those sorts of things." She risked glancing over at him, and smiled sheepishly when she caught him looking back. "I'm glad that out of all the land-boys, you were the only one idiotic enough to fall into the pool."

"Thanks, I think," Zac said, laughing at her backhanded compliment and shaking his head. "I'm glad that out of all the mermaids that could have chased me, you were the only one psychotic enough to want to actually trust the land-boy that lost you your home."

"Well, don't we make quite the pair," Lyla said with a smile, a warmth spreading through her chest. It wasn't something that she could control, just one of the many feelings that Zac induced in her.

"How are you and Evie by the way?" Lyla asked, the question coming out of her mouth before she had the chance to stop it. Hopefully he wouldn't interpret it as her thinking about _that _sort of thing.

"Fine," Zac said, slightly too quickly. "She's still processing the merman thing though. She's dealing with it as well as anyone could, but it's not really something she can just forget. Sometimes it makes things difficult to her, to think of me like that. She wants me totally in the human world. I think she just wants to try and ignore it all to be honest, but it's not something that will go away. Some day she might understand that, I hope."

"It can't be easy for her," Lyla said, trying to be sympathetic towards the girl she envied most in the world. "Or for you. After all, it's you that has to actually live it. Your entire life has been turned upside down."

"So has yours," Zac pointed out, "if not more so. I mean, you'd never even set foot on land before. Not only that, but I can still live my life on the land. Yours in the sea has kind of been put on pause."

"It's not so bad," Lyla said, more honestly than she ought to. She was supposed to be fighting with her everything to get the pod back, to get rid of Zac and to return to being the pod's loner. The problem was that some part of her had to acknowledge that, in many respects, now was the happiest time of her life. "I have a new pod now. You, Nixie and Sirena, and Rita. I've never really been very good at being close to people but with you guys it just… works."

"Yeah," Zac said, mirroring her pleasantly surprised smile, "I get what you mean. Don't get me wrong, it's been one hell of a ride getting to this point, but it's been worth it. You guys have shown me so much." And by 'guys', Lyla could hear in his voice that he meant her.

With her grinning goofily back at him, feeling all warm and fuzzy thanks to the compliments and the odd atmosphere, Lyla barely noticed the moon pool bubbling up to begin with. Above them, the moon now covered a quarter of the circular opening above, casting a thin stream of light down into the water. It was enough to trigger the ritual, thousands of tiny bubbles erupting to the surface, a mysterious, gentle glow forming beneath the water.

Lyla's favourite part was how it affected her. She could feel the power of the moon flowing through her, bubbling up in the water, passing through her body. There was no way to describe it other than as magical, inspiring a sense of something totally transcendental happening, her body glowing not with light, but with something spiritual.

Beside her, Zac was experiencing it all for the first time. He looked like a little kid, his eyes huge with wonder, his lips parted as he stared at the shining waters. He laughed quietly, dazzled and in awe at all of it, and Lyla watched on fondly. To be the one to accompany him in that first-time moment felt almost like an honour, a special privilege that she was lucky to have. Or maybe that was just the bubbles talking.

Remembering her, Zac looked over, grinning widely from ear to ear, his brows raised as if to say, 'can you believe this?' With no malice Lyla smirked back, shaking her head at him. Then, with a wickedness worthy of Nixie, she splashed him, her hand cutting through the water skilfully. All mermaids were experts at water fights.

Spluttering, water droplets dripping from his hair, lashes, and lips, Zac sat there in stunned outrage for a moment before splashing her right back. He used both hands, sending a small tidal wave over her, soaking her hair all over again. Not one to be outdone, Lyla turned and used her tail to completely annihilate him, spraying him and half the walls with an almighty flick.

Forgetting the magic of the pool and the moon for a minute, they continued splashing one another back and forth, saying nothing but communicating rather in a series of dignified gasps and vengeful snickers.

Naturally, at some point their innocent messing around had to evolve into much more, as these things always did, triggered by an inevitable accidental something. That something came in the form of Zac jesting about the threat of dunking her. Grinning impishly, he came closer and gripped onto her shoulders, gently pushing her down so that her body became submerged underwater up to her collarbone. All they were both really aware of was the fact that he was touching her.

The real deal-breaker, however, was the moment when he kissed her.

Lyla didn't know if it was because of the blue moon or their primal instincts or some other mermaid-lore bullshit, but there was no getting away from the fact that the kiss was _magical_. She felt as if her entire self was changed through that one kiss, a chain reaction set off throughout her body in which every cell woke up with a little jolt, responding to his touch. There was no confusion, no violation, no outrage, it was just right, her body feeling as if it were melting with a silent sigh of 'finally'.

"I'm sorry I-" Zac started to apologise, drawing back. He was cut off, however, by Lyla gripping onto his neck and pulling him closer, kissing him without question. No way did he get to end a kiss that good.

Given an open invitation now, Zac didn't just kiss her. Again, maybe it was blue moon magic, but he moved with an energy that would have left her breathless had his kissing not beaten him to it. He pushed her back against the edge of the pool, pressing her up against the cool, textural surface of the rock, forcing their bodies closer. He touched her, his hands trailing up the bare skin of her back, and all the while he kissed her; rough, wanting gestures that seemed to end too quickly and couldn't start again soon enough.

"Zac," Lyla said, panting into his lips. She didn't know why the hell she was talking when there were so many better things to be doing, but she needed to know, needed to make sure that this wasn't a one-night finale. "Zac, this- this isn't just the blue moon making you do this, is it? I don't want you getting sucked into anything you don't-"

"Lyla," Zac half growled, his voice husky from the kissing, "I think you know as well as I do that I've wanted to do this since forever."

And that was all she needed to know. Reclaiming his lips, Lyla pressed her hands to his jaw and brought their faces close, aligning their bodies together in tessellation. All around them the water was surging with energy, the moon drawing steadily closer into alignment, and yet it felt like nothing compared to this. His lips on hers were indeed primal, kissing, tugging and intoxicating, building and rising into the unknown.

Whilst they explored one another's lips, Zac's hand drew round to her front, two fingertips tracing the line of her abdomen. Illogically, those feather-light touches affected her far more than anything else, sending electric shivers dancing across her skin, flexing through her muscles. With little hesitation she touched him back, feeling the smooth strength of his chest muscles as she ran a hand down his torso, her fingers brushing across skin, down onto scales.

She wondered if he found her scales odd to touch, unpleasant even. To her, they were as natural as the ocean itself, all a part of her, and there was something intensely sensual about slowly running her fingers down across his scales, feeling each bump press into her skin. The regular pattern of the curved edges was oddly satisfying, hypnotic even. Whilst one of her hands gripped his neck, the other ran down the side of his tail, transcribing its vast strength and intricate design through the sight of touch.

Unexpectedly, he returned the gesture, a hand ghosting down her back and caressing the rear of her tail, curving over the swell below her hips. It was a new experience to say the least; mermaids were not prone to touching one another's tails, such as humans did not often caress the skin of one another's intimate areas. To feel his hands on her tail was somewhat unnerving in its novelty, yet it was not disagreeable, sparking off a tenuously building need in the pit of her stomach.

As each kiss descended further, his lips tending to her neck, collarbone and even the base of her breast, another drive kicked in. It was not something Lyla had ever been taught, but something that rather came by instinct. They pressed themselves up against one another, lined stomach-to-stomach, tail-to-tail, and Lyla slunk her arms around his neck. Tilting her head backwards, she saw the moon nearly in full circle overhead, and understood without being told what would happen next.

She kissed him slowly, and felt something new press against her tail. What had previously been concealed internally had now come loose on Zac's behalf, and was pressing firmly into her front. Noticing this, Zac gave a shaky, uncertain laugh and paused his kissing to meet her eyes. "You know, this is kind of weird for me, having been human and all."

"You're doing great," Lyla said gently, since they seemed the appropriate words to say. In all honesty, she was just as nervous as he appeared, and yet at the same time she felt strangely certain in herself. Call it blue moon magic but she felt surprisingly confident that everything would work out well in the end.

They laughed shakily together for another moment before Zac stole her voice with another soft kiss, this one tender in the place of fire. "Are you sure?" He asked her, pressing his lips to the shell of her ear, kissing the sweet spot beneath it.

"Yes," she answered, planting a small, affectionate kiss to the base of his neck. "I am."

Returning to her lips, Zac leant in and closed the distance, kissing her tenderly at first, and then with more force and desperation. The sweetness gave way to heat and motion, and after a few brief awkward first attempts and experiments, Zac slipped himself into her, penetrating her with his newly exposed penis. It was nothing she had ever imagined doing, and yet it felt like a coded part of her, something she'd known before she'd even been born.

As the moon climbed towards its peak in the sky the water around them danced, stirring in rolling swirls around them, licking against their bare skin and tails. With it Zac kissed her faster, more strongly, and gave motion to his hips, rocking against her. He pushed deeper and she felt it like a tidal wave within her, a resonating signal sweeping through her body. She didn't know whether to kiss him harder or to gasp, but what she did know was that it felt _fantastic_.

She thought it a miracle that their scales never collided or jarred awkwardly, and yet as evolution dictated their bodies seemed made for each other, fitting together without fault. Even as Zac's thrusting rhythm grew in tempo, Lyla felt no pain, only a mild natural discomfort mixed in with the rolling waves of never before experienced pleasure. She'd never been connected to another person like this, never felt this close to someone. Screw the pod; losing them was worth this. This, under the moonlight in Zac's arms, was intimacy.

Gripping onto the ledge of the land, keeping them upright amongst the crescendo of the bubbling waters, Zac gained pace and bowed his head into her neck, alternating between gasping into her skin and kissing it feverishly. "Lyla," he said, his words ragged, barely coherent and yet she understood them perfectly, "I love you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry but I love you."

Holding onto him tighter, pushing her hips back against his rising ones, Lyla smiled in between the uncontrollable gasps he was eliciting. "Don't you ever be sorry for that Zac," she panted, cut off for a moment as he went deeper and her body trembled, incapable of speech. "I love you too. More than anything."

As they grasped onto one another, their syllables dissolving into groans and their breathing losing all structure, the peak of climax drew close. It did not surprise Lyla that, as the moon fell into place directly above the moon pool, so did Zac hit that strange, enigmatic sweet spot inside of her and she felt herself tip over the edge. The orgasm was twice as powerful as any moon spell, thrumming down through her core and sending her body into a dizzying bliss. She inhaled; her entire being changed, and then exhaled, and was left a different person for it.

Zac had come with her almost exactly, staggered ever so slightly behind, set off by the contraction of her entrance in response to the climax. Breathlessly, he lay in her arms for a moment, gently kissing the groove of her shoulder over and over. They lingered in silence for a good while, their breathing falling back into its regular lull along with their heartbeats, enveloped in a soothing tenderness.

When he was able he withdrew from her and his penis retracted, vanishing out of sight within a few seconds. He looked at where it had once been and gave his charming unsure laugh again, biting down on his bottom lip. "That is so weird for me."

"I would hope that it was more than just weird for you," Lyla said quietly, smiling although she spoke genuinely. "It certainly was for me. I was going more for life-changing, world-altering-"

"Awe-inspiring," Zac finished for her, and he matched her smile, kissing her fondly to punctuate the summary. "Lyla I… I have no words for it."

"Perfect," she decided for him, and felt that yes, perfect would do nicely.

Keeping her close, seeming unwilling for them to part, Zac glanced around as the simmering of the moon pool died down in the afterglow. "What now?" He asked quietly, pausing before looking back at her. "For you, for me. For us."

"I don't know Zac," Lyla answered truthfully. "There's Evie for you to think about. And moreover, I don't know what that will have caused. I don't know if I'm…"

"Pregnant," Zac finished for her once again, speaking the word with all the seriousness that it deserved.

"Whatever happens, we'll get through it together. I can't stay with Evie now, it wouldn't be fair on any of us. Not only that but I don't want to." Zac brought his hand to caress Lyla's cheek and ran his thumb gently across her skin, searching her eyes with his. "I want to stay with you."

"I'd like that," Lyla answered, and like an innocent schoolgirl she felt herself blushing. She certainly wasn't an innocent schoolgirl now.

They smiled together for a moment, and then the thought of pregnancy returned to the silence. "You don't feel the sudden urge to start popping out eggs, do you?" Zac asked, and Lyla could hear the apprehension concealed behind the joke. In all truth, she was glad for it. She had no desire for early parenthood either.

"I think that part is a choice Zac," she told him, and her own theory gained purchase in her mind as she spoke it. Nodding, she met his concerned gaze and smiled back reassuringly.

"All of this, it's up to us. The moon can't take away our free will Zac, it's just a guiding force. And I'm grateful for it; after all, it brought you here," Lyla confessed, running a hand down his arm, feeling the heat of his skin beneath her palm.

"I'm grateful too," Zac said. "Clearly it knows us better than we do."

"Zac, I think that I and half the town know that I loved you since the day I met you," Lyla said dryly. She could just imagine the ribbing she'd get from Sirena and Nixie now. How she'd resist throttling Nixie, she didn't know.

"Hey Lyla, just in case you didn't know," Zac said, dragging her out of her mental dilemma, "I love you."

"I love you too Zac," Lyla replied, gazing back. "Always."

"Always."


End file.
